DALEK! Part 3

Continuing with my personal reminisces and recollections of Daleks and their inevitable association with a certain Time Lord.

As the sixties drew to a close, Patrick Troughton decided his tenure as the Doctor should end. He had last faced the Daleks in 1967 during the serial ’ Evil of the Daleks’ . This was intended to be the last Dalek story for Dr Who, as creator Terry Nation’s intention was to sell the concept of the Daleks to American Television.

 

Terry Nation and friend

I still remember watching the first episode of ‘Spearhead from Space’ as Jon Pertwee took over the role of the Doctor in 1970. Prior to that I had followed the occasional Dr Who serial , preferring glossy American shows like ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’ and ‘Lost in Space‘ on the other channel. But impressed by Pertwee’s first appearance I made the effort never to miss an instalment and continued right up to the last Tom Baker story.

Jon Pertwee’s Dr Who had successfully beat off Autons, Axons and Daemons during his formative stories. It seemed the Daleks were becoming passé as the BBC concentrated more on new antagonists for the viewer to encounter. But it was only a matter of time before the Doctor was to be reacquainted with his infamous foes.

After being much heralded on the BBC, the Daleks returned on January 1^ST 1972 in ’Day of the Daleks’.

Polystyle publications had launched Countdown, their new glossy comic, and a worthy successor to what was once TV Century 21 in February 1971. Amongst it’s features was a new comic strip based on Pertwee’s portrayal of Dr Who. This was initially illustrated by artist Harry Lindfield and much less juvenile than the strip that had previously featured in TV Comic.

The Daleks made their usual exterminating entrance in Countdown issue 48 dated January 15^th 1972 , now drawn by Gerry Haylock. This more or less coincided with their appearance on the BBC show.

When the comic changed its name to TV Action , the Daleks still had centre stage.

1973 was the tenth anniversary for Dr Who, and to mark the occasion the Radio Times published a special magazine to mark the event.

Art by Frank Hampson

This excellent publication was packed with interviews, episode guides, an original Dalek story, and plans to build a full size Dalek!

In that same year Target began publishing their popular series of original script story adaptations including a reprint of the original 1964 Dr Who and the Daleks written by David Whittaker.

Following Jon Pertwee’s departure, Tom Baker took over the role of the Doctor in December 1974 and during his first season contemplated wiping the Daleks from history in the hugely popular story ‘ Genesis of the Daleks’. BBC Records would release a recording of ‘Genesis’ in 1979.

Denys Fisher as well as producing a fairly accurate Dalek toy as part of their Dr Who set released the unusual board game, ‘War of the Daleks’. The playing pieces were nicely detailed little plastic Daleks.

Four new Dalek annuals were produced starting with a 1976 edition. Published by World distributors, the quality of these books fell a long way short of their sixties counterparts, but were very welcome all the same.

Ty-Phoo Tea ran a promotion called the Amazing Worlds of Doctor Who in 1976. A set of 12 cards including one of a Dalek were given away free in packets of tea. You could send away for a poster and book which contained articles from previous annuals.

The breakfast cereal, Weetabix had two promotions featuring Tom Bakers’s Doctor. The first called Dr Who and his Enemies involved free card figures which could be placed in one of four cut out dioramas printed on the back of different packets. There were six different card Daleks in the set.

The second promotion, the Dr Who Action Game was another set of four separate cut out board games on the back of the packets. Free inside were more card figures which were used as board pieces. Two of the sets included Daleks.

 

And finally for now, in October 1979 Marvel comics published Doctor Who Weekly. Tom Baker as the Doctor had made the series incredibly popular, but quite rightly shared the front cover with a Dalek.

 

Tom would leave the series in 1981 to be replaced by Peter Davison. Personally, I didn't think Peter was a good choice to play the Doctor. He seemed far too young and lacked any authority in the part. He was never going to convince me he was  a wise and experienced  750 year old, on top of that the producer, John Nathan Turner seemed determined to steer Dr Who towards a more theartrical look, which didn't appeal to me all. So, at that point my interest in a contemporary Dr Who vanished as quickly as a Thal in front of a Dalek gunstick!